πτέρυγα
by MiyuTanemura
Summary: Gray never expected that. Gray & Natsu. Wing!fic. Alternate Universe.
1. Chapter 1

**TW:** Alternate Universe, slavery, wingfic.

 **πτέρυγα**

"He's here to accompany you. But if he does something bad, you'll have to punish him." The words were stated coldly and firmly, the tall person patting the strange pink hair of the young boy. Gray was also quite young but this was a new and odd situation. He didn't exactly understand why he was getting this boy as a companion. But, apparently, that was how things went on in his new life. Then again, he did remember Ultear and Lyon say something but it had been a long time ago and had totally escaped from his memory.

So.

A companion…

Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad…

* * *

Having a companion _sucked_.

Or maybe it was just the one who had landed with him that sucked.

His companion – Natsu, they'd called him – was a mess. He was stubborn, wild and just… a terrible headache. Because Gray had to be responsible for his messes.

And those were more than he ever expected, he'd realized after quite a while... and when there was no other choice, they did what was needed. They'd returned to the store and been made to buy a bunch of things, to "control" him, they'd said. To punish the wild thing.

Gray realized what he'd felt before. He didn't _like_ the store. Or the clerks, with those mellifluous smiles and empty eyes.

And the punishment…

Gray wasn't so innocent as to not understand what _this_ sort of punishment entailed.

 _It is bad_. Gray thought to himself as he sat on his bed, after getting home, surrounded by several of the gadgets.

The blackness of the utensils – though the light did reflect off the metallic parts – was a sharp contrast against the light blue coverlet of his bed.

Gray was looking down, arms crossed and a frown on his face as Natsu entered the room. The pink-haired slave stopped, standing stock still as he took in the scene. Instinctively he took a step back but caught himself and aborted the motion, his lips becoming a stern line at the same time that his face paled. He curled his hands into tight fists.

"So that's what you're planning to do?" Natsu, the reckless thing, kind of had the habit of speaking more than was expected. That had earned him a good number of reprehensions. Gray didn't care much about it, for his companion seemed to still enjoy his vivacity. After having purchased his companion, he'd started taking notice and the companions of most people, the ones he'd seen at least, all seemed so lifeless.

As weird as it sounded, Gray felt like he had a friend of sorts in Natsu. Kind of…

The two of them got into a lot of trouble (and lately some of it had been together!) and a strange comradery had blossomed between them. Lyon mocked Gray for association so much with the plebes but… the slow complicity that grew between them felt _right_.

"Mother wants you to behave." Gray said in a toneless voice. "I'm to start punishing you whenever you step out of line. Which, considering it's you, won't take too long…" he finished his tirade with a sigh, eyes not rising to meet Natsu's.

"You're kidding, right? She said that?" Disbelief and rage made Natsu's voice waver. "I thought your family wasn't of that sort. Figures…" he ended with a snort.

"Oh, shut up! It's all your fault. Because of you we had to return to that store and they're the ones who instructed us." Gray stood up in a rage. He didn't notice the muffled noises the _things_ made as they fell on the ground.

"I haven't been out of the loop for so long that I've forgotten how things are." Natsu shot back with a thinly veiled sarcastic voice. "I know very well what you people want from us, the aberrations. That's why we're treated like cattle."

"Wow, that's… that's really something…" Gray shot back, appaled.

"What, is the little prince locked so high up on his tower that he doesn't see how things really are?" Natsu snarked. "I can tell you that, despite all the stupid protections against slaves' magic, it won't last forever, _little prince_." The last words were said with such spite, Natsu had advanced to stand nearly nose-to-nose with Gray. He smirked and lifted one of his wrists, which sported the rough dark metal of his shackles.

"You _will_ shut your mouth!" Gray replied, seething. "You don't know _anything_!" He punctuated his statement with a shove. He miscalculated and Natsu ended up slammed against the wall.

Natsu started laughing, an angry sound that suddenly shifted to pained noises. Natsu slid down the wall, crumbling into a heap before Gray.

"Shit! What happened!?" Gray yelled while looking around in panic. By the corner of his eye he noticed that Natsu had taken off the tunic. And it was only then that he saw that there was something strange happening on the other's back. "Natsu, answer me!"

But the other couldn't reply. He was gasping for air, pained noises the only thing that seemed to permeate the room.

But then two sharp bits started growing off his back. Tearing the skin.

And Natsu cried out in pain, as blood started sliding down his back.

* * *

 **A/N:** Just a silly idea that I suddenly got. It's also pretty late so apologies for typos and weirdness...

The title is the Greek word for wing.


	2. Chapter 2

Before Gray's horrified eyes, Natsu was kneeling on the floor and something that looked like bones protruded from his back. Skin was torn as the bones – they weren't that white colour he usually associated with skeletal bones – started growing. As did Natsu's pained noises.

The gasps and tearing sounds seemingly took over the room, bouncing on the walls and seemingly becoming amplified in an awful cacophony.

The whole form of his companion was shaking, the muscles contracting with the tension and the position he'd taken was very unnatural as his spine was bending in what Gray could only describe as a painful position. Natsu's hands were opening and closing, nails digging and leaving small grooves on the wooden floor.

Gray stood awkwardly before Natsu, momentarily frozen and unable to step forward to help or to take a step back due to the shock.

But he shook himself out of it and reached out. Though before he could touch the other a rough, gasping voice made him stop.

" _Don't!_ "

* * *

Natsu was _burning_.

His back was the worst as it felt as if molten metal were being poured on it. Distantly, a part of his brain that wasn't consumed by the burn _pain_ hurt, realized that it was blood – not incandescent metal – that was sliding down his back.

It was red and flowed freely, a glossy thing that just didn't seem only fluid as light hit it.

That too quick realization was just an instant of clarity, the smallest of reprieves, before the pain encompassed his whole being once more.

And it _hurt_.

To be fair, Natsu didn't have a clue about what was happening.

He'd been having a pretty normal day, somewhat empty as Gray had had to go out but… nothing too out of the ordinary.

No.

That was a lie.

He had gotten in trouble earlier with the cook. But, damn, he'd only asked for another helping of lunch. There was a void inside of him that he tended to fill with food.

If he could, of course.

Yet, since he'd been purchased by this family, one that was fair and just and therefore on its way to become one of the Ten Families… he had food aplenty. Or so he thought.

He didn't like that he'd been kept in the same regimen he'd been put on at the _store_.

The emptiness inside of him had been close to winning a good number of times. And what if he'd become quieter and more aggressive, with his scars showing, the ragged edges barely held together – he wasn't the same person anymore. He'd grown way too fast despite being just a child.

That long ago.

So that was why when he saw all those _things_ on Gray's bed, and with him looking pensively at them, something inside had given.

It came in a rush from Natsu's core, singing every path and nerve or cell inside before converging to his back.

The blinding pain began at that moment. It wasn't just the feeling of burning, no, there was also the feeling of skin being torn apart, ripped.

He fell, kneeling on the floor and trying to breathe.

Which proved to be quite impossible too as each lungful of air he attempted to take burned down his throat like acid.

Twin bands of burning emerged in unison, making it so that the half-breath he still trapped in his lungs rushed out in a scream.

He tried to curl upon himself, make himself smaller but his body didn't respond. And there was what felt like a blanket of coolness to start seeping in, from the edge of his vision.

That terrified Natsu.

He'd once been told by a so called seer that had been at the store about his dark destiny. She'd been quite careful with the way she spoke, the whispered words of a secret. Of a terrible cold that would erase him just for the mission.

And it was inexorable.

Distantly he made himself grip the floor, trying to find a way to ground himself to the reality, the one that stood beyond the awful battle between the burn and the cold that was raging inside of him. The reality where his name was being called. Unfortunately that small pain didn't do anything to distract him from the pain.

Darkness was blossoming from his core, the cold taking over the burning sensation – it felt like a balm for a few moments before the gelid abyss it opened to came.

Everything _was_ different now.

 _He_ was different. All of his senses were working differently, sharper yet muffled by a cold veil – Natsu struggled to breathe once more as the vice on his throat seemed to finally close.

The air moved differently. Or maybe he was the one who saw something happening differently?

He felt the shift in the air, something approaching his shoulder and a frisson shot down his spine.

No.

He couldn't be touched.

Or something really awful would happen.

It was close. So close!

And the void inside him was beckoning, clamouring for it to make contact. It just couldn't be.

"Don't!"

The plea left his mouth, ragged, dripping with pain and exhausting. And that was enough for the hand to retract as if burned.

 _Good_. Natsu thought to himself. _It hasn't won this time yet_. That though calmed him slightly.

And then the pressure on his back also eased, almost with a _pop_ that helped the air to return to his lungs. The squishy sounds of some things falling followed.

Then, there were words, questions but he was lightheaded and couldn't quite hear them, and even less answer. Slow and painfully, he stood, letting the wall support most of his weight, not seeing the bloody red trails that he was leaving on the white paint.

Natsu felt the sudden need to stretch, which was odd. His whole body was actually feeling quite odd. His balance seemed quite wonky. Still, he gave in to the urge and heard the shocked gasp of the other person in the room. Gray was there, and that had completely fled from his mind.

"What the hell are _you_?" were the words lobbed at Natsu in an accusatory tone.

Natsu's reaction was to blink, still slightly in a daze.

"What?" he asked in a frail voice.


	3. Chapter 3

Gray was in a complete state of shock.

His companion had suddenly sported some _wings_?

"Yes! What are you? Companions don't have wings. People don't usually have wings unless it's those weird prosthetic things…" he stopped himself, feeling that he was starting to ramble.

"Me? I'm normal." The answer was so ridiculous that Gray couldn't quite muffle the laugh coming from him.

"No," he said finally, "you sure as hell aren't normal…" one hand rose in an aborted movement. Natsu seemed to flinch when it got closer to him. And that was quite odd too. "Like, you have wings…"

Only then did his companion seem to notice that, yes, those wings were there.

Gray took a closer look at the appendages, noticing the reddish-pink but tending to grey hue of the bones as well as the leather-like tissue that comprise it. It was slightly mesmerizing, even if they were shaking slightly.

"Oi, back off!" Natsu snarled, his eyes burning with a strange flame in them.

No, this wasn't the companion that Gray had known for some years, the one that both infuriated and amused him. This Natsu seemed to exude darkness.

Which was also a concept that was hard to assimilate.

 _His_ Natsu seemed to possess an inner light, he always brightened Gray's day – even the ones when he wanted to brood – and feeling this darkness, this cold, coming from him was just jarring.

"Why should I?" Gray still bit back in a defying tone.

"You don't want to do that – it's true, it has got to. The curse and…" Natsu started to mumble, agitatedly, running a hand through his face – only to end up looking at it with wide eyes.

His fingers. The tip of the fingers were getting pointier right before their eyes, suddenly ending up as dark talons.

"Shit!" the word came unbidden from Gray's mouth. He made to approach but Natsu's step back, pressing hard against the wall and with the wings seemingly throwing him off once again, made him stop. "Are you okay?"

"You can't come any closer. _Please_. I don't want…" he started to say but shook his head. "What is happening…" his voice started to become tinged with panic.

"So, you don't know?" Gray asked stupidly.

Natsu paused and looked blankly at Gray.

"What the fuck do you think?" he all but shouted. "Do you think I do this weird-ass shit every day?" He asked, throwing his hands up.

"Hey, no need to blame me because _you_ are _strange_!" Gray scoffed and ended up with a gasp. "Oh shit. Why is that happening?" he pointed up at Natsu.

"Huh? What? What's happening?" The companion was standing taller now, seemingly stronger. He looked to the sides, trying to see what Gray was seeing.

"You- your hair. It's black…"

"No, it's not." Natsu counteracted with a roll of his eyes. Then he frowned momentarily and glanced at the window.

"Yes, it is…" Gray went to his bedside table and found the mirror Lyon had once given him as a joke. He stood before Natsu once again and showed him.

"No way! I- no, I'm not…" he ran a hand through his hair as if to try to deny what was happening but the reflection told him otherwise. "This is not…" Natsu was starting but the wings fluttered a bit too harshly. With a slight shake of his shoulders he retracted the wings somewhat. "I hear it…"

"What are you talking about?" Gray frowned at the incoherency of his – what? once? – companion. "You don't make any sense. Not that you ever did but…"

"You might want to stay away from me. If you don't want bad things to happen…" Natsu then seemingly brushed Gray's presence aside and strode to the window. He looked outside, searching for something. And then, he jumped off it.

"Hey!" Gray ran to the window. He knew that Natsu's mental state wasn't the best at the moment – as for some reason, he had some fucking wings sprout off his back! – but he was on the second floor and it could be a nasty fall. But no, he had his wings open and was soaring down. As soon as he landed he ran towards the garden. Beside him on the grass, seemingly little red dots started blossoming.

Gray ran downstairs, ignoring the voices talking to him, the questions and glances. Then again, they had a reason to be. Gray usually didn't look so frantic.

He'd only gotten to the place where Natsu had landed when there was a loud scream.

Not only Gray but also some of the people in the garden rushed towards it.

One young maid was standing, horrified, in the roses garden. She was shaking, in shock. And the reason for that was lying on the floor in a heap.

One of the older gardeners was lying in there, eyes open and unseeing, a strange rictus on his face. Dead.

More people got there, some started asking for help.

Gray, however, didn't notice the chaos around him. His eyes were fixated on the ground.

The red blots that had blossomed on the grass…

He knelt down and picked one.

 _Poppy_ …

And then, the whole _curse_ babble made much more sense.

But… curse or no curse, Natsu was somewhere out there.

And Gray just _had_ to find him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Now that was kind of unsubtle, huh?


End file.
